June 1, 2008

We have had a great past few days. We have a nice place to walk at our campground. There is a small pond with two families of baby wild Canadian geese. The babies are growing very fast but are still fuzzy and haven’t grown their feathers yet. They are a lot of fun to watch.

We had dinner at a small but nice local Italian restaurant, Olga’s place, in the town where we went to grade and high school. It is named for the daughter who is a junior at our high school. Both Mother and Daughter work at the restaurant. Olga works after school and on weekends. Olga’s Mom, who was born in Croatia, gained her culinary skills cooking and working in restaurants and hotels in Europe. They use only fresh produce and make all their own sauces. The food is magnificent.

We’ve been able to visit with Mom a couple of times. Today we had lunch with her at her place. Char helped Mom fix green beans, red potatoes and sausage. We had coconut crème pie for desert. What a wonderful meal and it was great to be with Mom again.

Later we drove to see one of Mom’s cousin, Porter Young, who lives in the area. Mom’s maiden name was Young. They hadn’t seen one another in over thirty years. I couldn’t remember some of the people the Mom and Porter talked about today. But they did share some great stories and fond memories of their younger years. They agreed not to wait so long between visits.

In the evening, Julie and her two girls Tammy and Melissa stopped by to visit with us. It is always fun to see them and catch up on all they are doing. The girls both play softball and won their game this afternoon. The final score was 35 to 10. Way to go Tammy and Melissa.

Tomorrow my brother, Bob, his son, Rick, and I are leaving to go fishing for the next three days at Pleasant Lake in Northeastern Indiana. I will have more about our excursion later.